Arun Shourie, a noted Journalist, Activist, Scholar and Columnist is the author of several books, several of them on a diverse range of subjects related to his journalistic interests, including corruption and brilliant exposé of the Indian Communist party's long-standing anti-national policies.

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Monday, March 24, 2014

In an exclusive interview with ET Now, Arun Shourie, NDA's divestment minister has ruled out big ticket privatisation that the markets are betting on if Narendra Modi comes to power. Shourie, who many believe may be the next Finance Minister, also spells out broad economic agenda of Narendra Modi and how NaMo's focus will be to implement and not ideate too much on economic policy. Hear Arun Shourie talk politics, economics and 'Modinomics'

Tuesday, March 11, 2014

"India is becoming a recipe for disaster today with mediocrity becoming a norm, caste becoming a class, and assault becoming a proof," Bharatiya Janata party leader Arun Shourie said today at the India Today Conclave.
Government allocations and subsidies should be done not on the basis of regulatory inputs but on the basis of outputs because that will bring in performance based on merit, curb corruption and lead to optimum use of government resources, he said.
Coming down heavily on regulatory governance in sectors like education, Shourie said this has done immense damage to the system because regulators use the power they have to indulge in massive corruption, as indicated by the cases of corruption against heads of Medical Council of India, Council of Architecture,All India Nursing Council and Dental Council.
A compounder of the Nursing Council of India was caught while taking bribe of Rs 5 lakh, and later the CBI found he had assets worth Rs.200 crore.
Shourie revealed that in all, there were 13 regulators in the education sector and 36 in the finance sector, which has only led to more corruption and downslide in standards.
There were unreturned loans worth Rs 35,000 crore in the regulated banking sector, he said, highlighting the ill effects of the regulatory nature of governance.
Giving an example of the pitfalls of subsidy as it is given today, Shourie said in Alwar district, Indian Oil Corporation found that the intake of subsidised kerosene came down by 40% when it gave vouchers instead of actual kerosene to the beneficiaries because when actual kerosene was given it was being used by scamsters to adulterate diesel.
Shourie said labour laws were primarily responsible for the reduction of apprentices in India, which had a direct impact on growth. He added there are 20 million apprentices in China and 14 million in Germany.
"India needs change if it is to capitalise on its inherent strengths and the new prime minister will have to fight the enemies of change if he is to usher in a new era."
Source: http://www.business-standard.com/article/politics/new-pm-will-have-to-fight-enemies-of-change-arun-shourie-114030700924_1.html

Hitting out at the UPA government, former Union Minister Arun Shourie said that their core competence lies at appropriating credit for good work and blaming others for their own poor performance.

Speaking at the session 'The Dead Hand of the State: Why the Government Has No Business to Be in Business' at 13th India Today Conclave on Friday, Shourie said, "Since 1991, we have seen the sector which have missed the eye of the state have progressed like IT. On the contrary, education which was directly under the government's eye continues to lag behind."

Beginning on a lighter note, Shourie said, "Any government that comes in the Centre has two illusions. One that it can change the public sector enterprises and the other being that it will improve relations with Pakistan."

"Record speaks for itself that the government has no hand to be in business," he said.

The former Disinvestment Minister said the focus of government in the past few years has come down to expenditure and not on the outcomes.

The disease has infected even the courts which frequently say that profiteering should not be the government's focus, he said.

Maintaining that multiplicity of regulators resulting from the government's foray into business gives rise to corruption, Shourie cited examples of corruption cases in various government regulatory bodies.

Counting the remedies to the problem, Shourie said that the number of regulations need to be brought down. He added while we have to change the course of discussion, procedures need to be improved and codified. All allocations must be related to outcomes and not inputs, he added.

Appealing to the people, Shourie said, "We have to come forward. The state cannot be improved if we do not change. For that, two things are necessary. First, to reverse the perverse norms of society. And secondly, we have to change our own conduct. Unless we do that, there is no change anywhere."

NEW DELHI: Former Union minister Arun Shourie said the recent expose of scandals helped put in place rational procedures for allocation of the country's scarce resources.

"There is one good thing that is happening because of the scandals. At long last because of court interventions and other things, rational procedures are coming about for the allocation of scarce resources. In mining it would happen...in 3G auctions this time for spectrum it certainly has.... We should codify these and ensure it can proceed further," he said.

Shourie was speaking on 'The Dead Hand of the State: Why the Government Has No Business to Be in Business' at the 13th India Today Conclave.

He said that on the record, it was clear that the state should not be in these activities.

The former telecom minister said that the sectors which escaped the eye of the state did well like IT while those where there was intervention did not do so.

"If you compare periods before 1991 and after it, there is a secular difference between the rates of growth because the state is less important now than what it was then," he said.

"If one sees the sectors, those which escaped the eye of the state did well like IT and those which remained in the eye of the state just could not get ahead like education," he added.

Shourie also hit out on the UPA government, saying its "core competence lied in blaming others" if its performance went poor and taking credit if some work went well.

On a lighter note, he said that which ever government comes, it has two illusions. "One is that they can turn around public sector enterprises and the other is that they can improve relations with Pakistan," he said.

Advocating that all allocations must be related to outcomes and not inputs, the former Union minister also called for reversing the "perverse norms" which have come up in the society.